John Canemaker At Apple Store Soho Apple and indieWIRE are proud to present Filmmaker Talks at the Apple Store SoHo during the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. Get a peek behind the scenes from some of the industry's leading filmmakers as well as emerging directors.

John Canemaker - May 2, 4:00 p.m.
Oscar-winning animator John Canemaker shares how he brought personal and difficult subject matter to the screen through his animated film "The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation." The Mac played a significant role in the post-production of his hand-drawn animation.

For more info:
http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2007/04/indiewire_annou_7.html  ¶ 9:35 AM

  Stop Mo Jam:

The Stop Mo Expo Animation Jam started at 7:30 AM and ran until 7:30 PM. I couldn’t get anybody to animate during the film festival and I don`t blame them. The only reason we had anybody animating from 6 to 7:30 was because I had seen the first part on the contemporary media festival and even then my piece ends a little abruptly because Stop Look and Listen was coming on.

Therefore the jam was 5 teams over 12 hours and came in at a 1:19. Which is good for stop motion. I can remember getting 15 seconds after 5 hours of work. Here is the stop mo jam file. It is a big file. You have been warned. We will be adding sound and putting it out with last years Comic Con 2-D Jam.


click image

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 6:14 PM

  YouTube, Video Napster?


Or If you are napping they will steal your film:

This is a follow-up to the Stop Look and Listen listing by Cartoon Brew http://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/stop-look-and-listen-1967 as a new posting on YouTube.

Just days before the authorized screening of Stop Look and Listen and 2 other Len Janson/Chuck Menville films as part of the Stop Mo Expo Film Festival these films show up on YouTube to great fanfare at Brew. Here is a news flash, no one talked to Len Janson before posting his film. No one asked him anything. They just posted it. And that is the way it always happens. Damn the copyrights, full speed ahead.

I am very ambivalent about the whole YouTube phenomena. To start with the quality is often bad and does not show the films in their best light but then again sometimes it is the only place you can see a film.

It is kind like my feelings on copyright in a microcosm, I am in favor of strong copyright enforcement but sometimes copyright is used, for what ever reason, as a means to keep historic films out of public view. (Fox, where are you hiding the Jay Ward/Alex Anderson Crusader Rabbits? I want to see them!)

The thing I love about Napster, I mean YouTube is the wild-west wide-open nature of the domain. The thing I hate about YouTube is the wild-west wide-open nature of the domain. You have to be constantly vigilant to protect yourself or somebody will post your life`s work and undercut your sales.

Which means the big guys, who are hoarding their films, will be protected because they can afford to have people checking and the little guys will get it in the neck. So what else is new?

Just as a note, there are a number of us trying to get Len and crew to get together a DVD of all of the Len Janson/Chuck Menville pixilation shorts. The question is, will there be a market for the higher quality DVD if everybody gets it in poor quality for free?

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 12:10 PM

  Stop Mo Expo Review:



I spent most of the day (head sans chicken) running around making sure things happened and answering questions.





The Animation Jam got started around 7:30 AM with 2 of the animators coming in from Oregon for the events. We ended about 7:30 PM with 1:19.




Talking to Eric Graf. Eric, who with my son Tobias, filmed the event.




Edward Chiodo kicked off the day with a panel about Stop Motion in the Computer Age. Also on the panel were Chris Warren and Simon de Jong.












Chris Warren goes into detail on how to beat auto focus and other problems of digital still cameras





Next up, Tennessee Reid Norton with Ask the Experts





I was blown away with the sheer will to animate of Christiane Cegavske who took 13 years to single handedly animate her stop motion feature Blood Tea and Red String. We didn`t have time to show it in the festival but we did show one of her shorts and showed a trailer for Blood Tea.



Misha Klein knocked my socks off with his timing and performance in The Hallway.



Chiodo dino armatures




Brad Koepenick and Greg Kindseth dominated the stop motion education panel. Brad, this year`s LA Charter School Teacher of the Year, teaches drama and stop motion to LA students from very non 90210 zip codes. He also teaches stop motion to Autistic children.




Greg Kindseth, through his program Movies By Kids, teaches stop motion to kids as young at 5 years old.




The jam continues with Robyn Yannoukos and two 13 year olds from Movies By Kids.



Rob Ronning and the blogger talking shop in the lunch break about low-end armatures and my preference for 10 gage copper wire with insulation over aluminum. A subject I feel strongly about but almost never get to talk about.



Jim Aupperle led a panel on lighting and camera with Mark Sawicki and Jim Matlosz. Jim has worked on everything by he is my hero for his stop motion work on Flesh Gordon.





The highlight of the afternoon sessions was Stephen Chiodo with Evolution Of Stop Motion. Shown here Corky Quakenbush, Gene Warren Jr. and Will Vinton.




Kent Burton set in for Randy Cook who was on deadline.




CONFESSION: I try to be pro cool when I meet childhood heroes but I had a complete fan boy moment when Stephen Chiodo introduced me to Gene Warren Jr. Back in my special effects days his was a name to conger with.

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 6:50 AM

  Contribute: Ralphs Card Program
DO YOU HAVE A RALPHS CARD?

If you shop at Ralphs, you can contribute to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive automatically as you shop for your groceries... and it doesn't cost you a cent! Ralphs will contribute a portion of your purchases to the Archive every time you use your Ralphs Card. Sign up to help us out online today!

It's easy, just follow these simple steps...

• Go to www.ralphs.com/ccprogram.htm
• Click on the button that says "PARTICIPANT: SIGN UP"
• Read the popup window and click on "I AGREE"
• Enter this NPO NUMBER: 83902
• Fill in the number on the back of your Ralphs Card, your name and address
• Click on the SUBMIT button

That's all there is to it! Now, every time you shop, you'll be helping out the Archive. Thanks very much for your support.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

P.S. If you don't have a Ralphs Club card yet, you can sign up for one online.  ¶ 8:22 PM

  Stop Mo Expo & Stop Motion Film Festival:

Woodbury University
7500 GlenOaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA

2 Big Events


Expo:

• 9:00 to 9:15 Opening Statements
  
• 9:15 to 10:10 Stop Motion in the Computer Age Edward Chiodo: Chris Warren, Simon de Jong
  
• 10:10 to 11:10 Ask the Experts Tennessee Reid Norton: Larry Loc, Christiane Cegavske, Rob Ronning, Ross Shuman, Misha Klein
  
• 11:10 to 12:00 Stop Motion Education Larry Loc: Stephen Chiodo, Dori Littell-Herrick, Greg Kindseth, Brad Koepenick
  
• 12:00 to 1:00 LUNCH BREAK
  
• 1:00 to 3:30 Sets, Lighting, Camera Jim Aupperle: Mark Sawicki, Jim Matlosz
  
• 3:30 to 5:00 Evolution of Stop Motion Animation Stephen Chiodo: Will Vinton, Corky Quakenbush, Gene Warren Jr, Randy Cook
  

Stop Motion Film Festival:

Contemporary Media 6PM to 8 PM

• Country Boy Jon Wokuluk Blood and Sunflowers Christiane Cegavske
  
• Keep It Down Max Maddox & Brady Serwitz
  
• Butter Dove Jean Ngo
  
• Locked In (Judas Priest) Mark Sawicki & Juniko Moody
  
• Innards Chiodo Bros. Productions, Inc / T.P. Cornpone
  
• Ballad of Mary Slade Robin Fuller
  
• Oedipus Jason Wishnow
  
• Papa Oom Jon Wokuluk
  
• Point of No Return (Nu Shooz) Mark Sawicki & Juniko Moody
  
• Stop Look and Listen Len Janson & Chuck Menville
  
• Raging Rudolph Corky Quakenbush
  
• Wake Up (Stop) Mark Sawicki & Steve Segal
  
• Africa Partings Robyn Yannoukos & Brian LoSchiavo
  
• Loom Scott Kravitz
  
• No, No Pickle Jon Wokuluk & Aki Umemoto
  
• Vicious Cycles Len Janson & Chuck Menville
  
• A Light Through the Husk Corky Quakenbush
  
• The Vines (music video)
  
• The Great Cognito Will Vinton
  
• Do Me, I'm the Best
  (Otafuku Rex) Eric Towner & David Candelaria
  
• Blood Tea and Red String (Trailer) Christiane Cegavske
  
• Sinking Soon (Norah Jones) Benny Zelkowicz & Tennessee Reid Norton
  
• Blaze Glory Len Janson & Chuck Menville
  
• Still Life (Shaun the Sheep) Christopher Sadler - Aardman Animation
  

The 16 MM Stop Motion Festival 8 PM to 10 PM

• Adventures of Pinocchio (episodes) Rankin-Bass
  (1962, Eastman)
  
• Diehl Bros. of Germany (documentary featuring Maki)
  B/W
  
• Archangel Gabriel and Mother Goose Jiri Trynka
  (1965, Eastman warming color)
  
• Zanzabelle in Paris Starevitch (1949, B/W)
  
• Deep In The Well (Russian or Eastern Europe b/w)
  
• Sky Pirates George Pal for Phillips
  (1938, Kodachrome)
  
• Fox and Bear Starevitch from The Tale of the Fox,
  1929-39
  
• Olio For Jasper George Pal (1946, Kodachrome)
  
• The Mascot Starevitch (1934, B/W)
  

Plus the Animation Jam (still looking for animators), the Stop Motion Artifacts Display and so much more.

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)

  ¶ 6:03 PM

  Meta: Archive Hours Tuesday The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive will be opening a bit late on Tuesday. Instead of 1pm, we will be open around 3. Thanks!  ¶ 7:58 PM

  Weekend Update:

Yesterday I took time out from the frantic pace of getting together all the stuff for the Stop Mo Expo to go to Martha Sigall 90th Birthday party. The place was packed with great animators and artists.

Among the luminaries in attendance were Cathy Hill and Mark Kausler. Cathy made my day when she gave me a color Xerox of a painting she did of me. (See below) Here is a link to her web site http://home.earthlink.net/~c.hillart/ Meanwhile, Mark handed off the 16 MM films for the Stop Mo Film Festival to Jerry Beck, who will be running the projector.



I had a great conversation with the head of ink and paint for Tron about the infighting between the new kids Tron staff and the Disney old guard during the making of the groundbreaking film. Great stories.

My ebook is finally finished and will be available at the at the Stop Mo Expo next weekend.



Still have a few time slots open in the Stop Motion Animation Jam at the Expo. Get in touch if you are interested. larry@agni-animation.com make sure to put Animation Jam in the Subject Line.

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 11:25 AM

  Happy 90th Birthday to animation legend Martha Sigall




Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 9:49 AM

  Shaun at the Expo!...



This just in for the Stop Mo Expo Film Festival:

Good news, Larry.

We've got an episode of Shaun the Sheep from Aardman! The DVD and production credits are coming to me. As soon as I get them, I will let you know and we can work out the best way to get them to you.

Frank

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 11:14 AM

  Event: Big Book Signing Event
Van Eaton Galleries & Creative Talent Network Present the First-Ever "Animation Book Look" April 19th 2007, 6:00 PM

Van Eaton Galleries & Creative Talent Network (CTN) are pleased to co-sponsor a unique Signature Event on Thursday April 19th, 2007. The "Animation Book Look" is a first time opportunity to meet some of the greatest authors and artists from the world of Animation in one event.

In a casual salon environment, meet the creators of some of the best educational, sketch and fantasy books relating to the world of animation. Meet and greet, buy a book, get a signature, find out their inspiration and what they are working on now, or where their next show is.

Confirmed Artists and Authors include:

Jerry Beck , Nancy Beiman, Toby Bluth, David Colman, Mark Cotta Vaz, Craig Elliott, Steve E. Gordon, JB Kaufman, Rik Maki, Russell Merritt, Alex Nino, Phil Phillipson, Brian Phillipson, Nik Ranieri, Stephen Silver, Tom Sito, Dave Smith, Jeff Snow and Dean Yeagle.

Please join us in the Gallery on April 19th, 2007 from 6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.

If you cannot attend, books can be ordered through this website and signed for you on the evening of the event.

For more information, please see...
http://www.vegalleries.com/old_site/animationbooklook.html

To place an order, to RSVP for the event, or for any additional information, call 818-788-2357 (in California) or 800-599-3693

Van Eaton Galleries
13613 Ventura Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
(818) 788-2357
(800) 599-3693  ¶ 10:39 PM

 
CLICK BANNER TO GO TO SITE:

Stop Mo Expo website update:
I have been dumping everything into a PDF file for speed sake. Not much time to do HTML. I know that some people have had problems getting into the site.

David Derks to the rescue. David has done a front end page for the Stop Mo site that looks very nice. You are still going to have to go to the PDF file to get in depth information but he does a little better job of leading you through the steps to get there.

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 1:14 PM

    ¶ 6:55 AM

 
16 mm Stop Mo Animation film Festvial 8 PM to 10 PM
I meant to have this posted earlier but blogger was not working at all for the longest time. Here is a list of the 16 MM films from the Mark Kausler Collection that we are going to be showing at the Stop Mo Expo.

• Rankin-Bass (1962, Eastman) Adventures of Pinocchio (episodes)
  
• Diehl Bros. of Germany, featuring Maki B/W
  
• Jiri Trynka (1965, Eastman warming color) Archangel Gabriel and Mother Goose
  
• Starevitch (1949, B/W) Zanzabelle in Paris
  
• Russian? Eastern Europe? b/w) Deep In The Well
  
• Starevitch from The Tale of the Fox, 1929-39 Fox and Bear
  
• George Pal for Phillips (1938, Kodachrome) Sky Pirates
  
• George Pal (1946, Kodachrome) Olio For Jasper
  
• Starevitch The Mascot (1934, B/W)
  

First off, a big thanks to Mark Kausler for pulling these great films. There may be changes to the program but this is where we stand right now. It hurt but I had to cut a lot of George Pal, 2 more Jaspers and a Phillips commercial from 1939. I also had to cut 2 Joop Geesink films that also hurt a lot. I am hoping that maybe some of them can be shown between the panels and the festival during the dinner break while Jerry Beck is setting up the projector. Who knows, maybe we will get lucky.

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 10:18 PM

  This nice decount offer in from Bob (Porky Pig) Bergen

As the debut of my one man show, Not Just Another Pretty Voice! (the
story of a nice Jewish boy who wanted to be Porky Pig) approaches, I wanted to
make a special offer to my fellow ASIFA peeps. 20% off the regular ticket
price!!!

Here's what you have to do:

1) Click this link http://www.plays411.com/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=838
which should take you to the reservation page. IF for some reason this isn`t working go to www.plays411.com and follow the instructions to my show OR call (323) 960-5771.

2) When you click buy tickets you`ll see on the next page promo code. Enter the number 004 along with your reservation information.

That will get you 20% off!

The show only has a 6 night run. Every Wednesday night at 8:00pm April 25-May 30 at The Stella Adler Theater in Hollywood. There's only 25 discount tickets available each night!

Hope to see you there!>

Bob Bergen

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 10:01 PM

 

I spent the morning doing restoration and clean up on some of the Oogie Boogie set pieces from the Nightmare Before Christmas for the Stop Motion Artifact Display at the Stop Mo Expo.

The question is how much to clean. The man that pulled the set out of the trash stored them in his kitchen for 10 years. Everything was coated in cooking grease. So how much do I clean? How much do I restore?



Less is more. I decided to clean only the plastic light covers and leave the dark framework alone. The fear is that I might pick up paint even with the organic grease cutters and Q-Tips.



I put a new power cord on the unit (no need to rewire) and the lights came right on when I plugged it in.



One down two to go and two the way they are. I am going to leave the the last two set pieces the way they came to ASIFA. Come on out on April 21st and see this and other stop motion artifacts.

Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 10:37 AM

 
Click to see page

Just finished the research and rewrite on the 6th edition of my ebook Animation on a ShoeString(tm). Have not finished proof reading or hot linking yet.

In keeping with the upcoming Stop Mo Expo (April 21st Woodbury) I am putting up a page from the stop motion armature building section of the book on a new product that can be used in the building of armatures even thou it was never design for such use.

I am off to Burbank today for a meeting with Nancy, my Woodbury stop motion student, amd then a meeting with Dori, the head of Woodbury Animaiton and finally an ASIFA board meeting.

We have decided to add a display area to the Expo. So I need to bring home and clean the Nightmare Oogie Boogie set pieces for the display. We have a number of other things from Robyn Yannoukos' Africa Parting, the Chiodo Bros. films and a number of other sources. Should be fun.


Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy)  ¶ 7:45 AM